Holyoke city councilors investigating how now-gone Dwight Street traffic island came about

The Republican / Don TreegerThis traffic island at Dwight and Oak streets in Holyoke, which caused much consternation for motorists, was removed last month.

HOLYOKE - It’s gone now, but city councilors have questions about how it came to be that a traffic island was built in the middle of Dwight Street.

The round concrete island at the intersection with Oak Street, which Department of Public Works officials said was installed to calm traffic, was the scene of a motorcycle accident three days before it was removed on July 12.

A Chicopee man suffered head and other injuries when his motorcycle struck the island on July 9.

Chairwoman Patricia C. Devine is scheduling a City Council Public Safety Committee meeting on the orders about the island that councilors filed at the Aug. 4 meeting.

Councilors said Wednesday they want to know how the decision was made to install the island and why the City Council wasn’t contacted first.

Councilor at Large Kevin A. Jourdain called placement of the island in the middle of the road a “misadventure.”

“That was a waste of money and that should never have occurred,” Jourdain said.

The island was 10 feet in diameter, a foot high and built with a $3,000 federal grant, City Engineer Matthew J. Sokop wrote in an e-mail to Devine on June 29.

Public works Superintendent William D. Fuqua said the intent of the island was to improve the area’s quality of life. The island would cause traffic to slow down, including commuters coming off the Muller Bridge from South Hadley, he said.

Acting Fire Chief William F. Kane and Police Chief Anthony R. Scott said their departments weren’t consulted before the island was installed.

Kane had demanded the island be removed after a test showed firefighters would have trouble maneuvering the department’s largest truck around the structure.

In early July, Devine said the island was an accident waiting to happen.